United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed German diplomat Volker Perthes as his special representative for Sudan, the UN press service said in a statement on Friday.“United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today announced the appointment of Volker Perthes of Germany as his new Special Representative for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan [UNITAMS],” the press service said.

According to the announcement, Perthes is an experienced geopolitics expert with over 25 years of background in academia, international relations, and diplomacy, including within the UN.

UNITAMS was established last June, with a one-year mandate to support the political transition in Sudan.

The mission will specifically tackle human rights and sustainable peace.A coup in April 2019 toppled Sudan’s long-time president Omar Bashir and ignited a violent confrontation between the military and civilian contenders to power.

Several deadly crackdowns on sit-in civilian protests by the troops only further exacerbated the power crisis.In August 2019, the Transitional Military Council and the civilian opposition finally reached an agreement to form a new institution, the Sovereign Council, with equal military-civilian representation and rotating chairmanship to govern the country for the next 39 months. (Sputnik/NAN)